There currently exist several turbine driven rotary machine tools for various operations. Some of these tools are bulky and operate at a relatively low speed and high horsepower. These tools can use large cutting bits for removing substantial amounts of material from a work piece. There exists other turbine driven rotor machine tools that are relatively less bulky and operate at a relatively high speed with small cutting bits to remove lesser amounts of material at a relatively high rate.
As a matter of example, currently, complex aerospace parts containing T-stiffners and return flanges that carry around corners of a pocket are designed as sheet metal attachments or machined with a low speed rotary machine tool having a right angle head. The sheet metal requires additional fasteners, which in turn increase the part weight, part count, cost and assembly time. Low speed machining with current right angle head designs requires additional machining time and access to confined areas is limited by the bulkiness of the head. Features on the peripheral part or features in ribs are currently machined by hand, with additional setup and complex tooling, or with a low speed right angle head. This requires more setup time, machining time, and increases tooling costs. The bulkiness of current right angle heads limits their capability.
There therefore exists a need for a relatively high speed, high horsepower turbine driven rotary machine tool that can utilize relatively large bits to remove substantial amounts of material at high speed.